ArgoKnot

ArgoKnot
A journal of my weaving, spinning, and knitting life
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Author name: ozweaver

Coastal Living

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I’ve been  living on the water for one week now.  The weather has been beautiful, the coastline of Maine stunning!  On the trip up Bob saw a whale and a big basking shark. Together we’ve seen seals, and lots of shore birds: egrets, herons, ospreys, storm petrels.  Yesterday I saw eider ducks for the first time!

During the first few days on board I finished this sweater which is a monstrous failure!

Plymouth yarn "Kudo" knitted into Plymouth's pattern 1977

So, what went wrong?  Well, maybe the yarn is just too bright for horizontal stripes?  …especially in larger sizes!  Although it was a very quick project to knit, no knitting project goes quickly enough not to feel a sharp pang of anxiety when it proves to be a failure!

Also, here is the photo on the pattern:

Plymouth Yarns #1977 for Kudo yarn

My biggest gripe is the look of the sleeves in the cover photo.  They are clearly 3/4 sleeves.  The pattern knits up as short sleeves.  The pattern does say that if you want shorter or longer sleeves you must adjust your stitch number to achieve this.  The pattern says that the stitches called for in the instructions will result in elbow length sleeves, but it does not say whether that includes the seed stitch border.  To me the sleeves in the cover are elbow length before the seed stitch border was added, so I presumed that the pattern photo showed the sweater knitted to the specifications in the basic pattern.  Wrong. The finsihed sweater looks decidedly dumpy with the short sleeves.  I tried the seed stitch border and didn’t like it.  So I ripped it out and tried a crocheted scallop, also dumpy, as the photo shows!  I cannot just do the sleeves over, making them longer, since the entire sweater is knit in one piece, from the bottom of the front all the way to the bottom of the back, increasing for the sleeves and working the neck as you go.  This would basically mean knitting the sweater again from almost the beginning.  A little note in the instructions saying that the sleeves in the photo had been lengthened would have helped immensely!  But still, I don’t know if I could carry off those bright horizontal stripes, so I’m not too enthusiastic about doing this sweater again anyway!

Paul's awesom mud oven in the shape of fish!

On a more positive note…. we went to a party on Bailey’s Island, as guests of guests. Our host Paul built a mud oven shaped like a fish with its mouth wide open to accept his culinary creations.  He made 32 pizzas that day!  Delightful combinations like pear and gorgonzola, eggplant and green salsa….even a couple of dessert pizzas with chocolate chunks, marmallows and strawberries!  I think there will be a mud oven in our future at home!

Bailey's Island granite cribstone bridge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This bridge is built Lincoln Log style out of granite pieces that are resting on each other, no pins or cement of any kind.  Amazing! It was originally in 1927-28 and a recent rebuild was just finished this year. According to local knowledge, there was only one other bridge like it in existence in the 20th century, and that was in Scotland.  That bridge was dismantled during WWII so currently the only cribstone bridge is this one on Bailey’s Island.  We were anchored right on the East side of it!

 

“Pandora” from our host’s gardens on Bailey’s Island
Lunch is ready!

As I write this we are leaving Cundy’s Harbor where we visited good friends with a lovely house and garden right on the harbor.  Their neighbor, a seasoned lobsterman, motored over to us in his boat Life After... while we were headed to the well known “Basin,” and he passed us four lobsters in a bucket!  We will feast tonight!

 


 


 


Handwoven Home

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…or home away from home.  My husband and I spend some weeks every summer sailing on board our sailboat Pandora.  This year, just weeks before we moved on board I spent a week at Becky’s Vavstuga taking her Vavstuga Basics class.  This is an absolute prerequisite for any of her other classes, her way of making sure that students have the same basic training before moving on to her more specific classes. This session’s basic class had five projects: a false damask small table square, a small (30″ x 30″) tablecloth, a dishtowel, a bathmat, and a blanket.  I decided that all these projects, except the bathmat, would be used on Pandora!

one of the small tablecloths
one of two dishtowel warps
second dish towel with blue blanket in background

 

 

 

 

 

Student Susan sleying reed for Blue blanket
Ilona working on the green blanket

 

The block weave project
The bathmat project
Andi and Patti working together
Andi and Patti working together

Becky Ashenden’s lovely studio and student residence is furnished entirely in Swedish style (mostly from IKEA) with her handwovens adorning every horizontal surface as well as all the windows!  The whole place could be a scene from a Carl Larsson painting. In our bedrooms we each had a handwoven coverlet for our bed and handwoven curtains.  In the main sitting room/dining room/kitchenette, there were wool blankets on the backs of the comfy chairs, a tablecloth on the side table in the sitting area, and curtains on the windows.  All the curtains had handwoven tapes as tie-backs.  We had breakfast each morning up in the residence dining room.  Breakfast was made and delivered by Susan (Becky’s business partner), who brought up a different tablecloth each morning, while wearing a matching apron.  I have a new appreciation for aprons!

 

Breakfast with one of many handwoven tablecloths!

Class started each morning at 9am after breakfast at 8.  Monday we made color wrappings for dishtowels and chose the two designs we liked best.  Then we began warping for them and also making the warps for the other projects.  By the afternoon we were putting the warps on the looms.  I will put details of Becky’s Swedish warping techniques on the weaving page.  At 11am each day we gathered at a large table in the studio for drafting exercises.  All of us except one student were experienced weavers.  Some of us had been weaving for decades, and one student had even spent a year at a Swedish handcraft school just like the one where Becky herself had studied.  Still, making drafts by hand on graph paper was a useful exercise for all of us!

The studio lights went off promptly at noon signalling lunch.  There was one hour to enjoy an amazing lunch with lots of choices served smorgasbord-style.  The class information stated that while Becky could not accommodate specific diets, most people on restricted diets could still get plenty to eat.  It was true!  Each lunch included a platter of raw vegetables, like radish and cucumber, a green salad, a cheese tray, a basket of crackers, a basket of Susan’s still-warm homemade bread, a plate of sliced deli meats and various dishes that were freshly made for that day’s lunch.  These main courses included shrimp/fennel salad one day, a wheat berry salad with vegetable and dried fruit another day.  It was a feast!

 

The dining room table set for lunch

Dinner always included the same assortment of platters holding cheeses, raw veggies, sliced meats, etc.  And there would also be a hot main course.  There was another loaf of Susan’s delicious bread.  We loved it so much that we demanded a photo of her with bread before she sliced it!  Becky made a fresh dessert each day to serve after dinner.

 

Susan with her homemade bread, wearing a handwoven apron

The studio re-opened at 1pm each day, so after lunch there was time for a short walk or for perusing the extensive library of weaving books….or shopping in the retail section of Vavstuga!  We re-gathered at the table at 3pm each afternoon for another session of instruction which included looking at innumerable handwoven items.  I have never seen so many handwoven items in one location. It was exhilarating!

 

Afternoon class examining some of Becky's handwoven tablecloths

Dinner was at 6pm each evening, and again the studio lights were turned off to bring us all to the table together. The studio re-opened from 7.30 -9 pm for evening weaving.

Gathering at the table

Our days had a definite rhythm because of Becky and Susan’s hard work and organization.  After working together to warp four of the five projects, we were all weaving by Wednesday morning. We warped each project in groups of two which made beaming, threading and sleying a breeze.  It is really quite enjoyable to warp with another person (and I’m someone who loves the warping process and looks forward to that time alone!).  I want to see if I can institute a warping group when I return home in late summer.

 

Warping mill with view of the Deerfield River

Each day Becky wore a handwoven dress, and we all enjoyed hearing the plans for her summer solstice wedding, including her handwoven fabric design for her wedding dress.  She was to be married just a week after our class ended, and I hope there will be photos on her site when she returns!  While we did not get to see the dress, we saw the fabric leftovers after the pattern pieces were cut….stunning!

Becky’s studio sits at the entrance to the Bridge of Flowers which is an incredible place in mid-June.

 

Bridge of Flowers

 

Students' work on Friday afternoon
The class with our finished projects!
Susan and Becky

So…..back to Pandora and my handwoven home on the water…..

 

False Damask table square on cockpit table
Handwoven tablecloth and blanket from my week at Vavstuga

Ooops! I think I left the hand towel at home, and the bathmat was made for our upstairs guest bathroom.

 

 

 

Life is what happens…

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…when you’re busy making other plans….

In the midst of my weaving, spinning, basket making, bobbin lace, knitting and gardening my life has taken a sharp turn.

I was so busy getting two Nantucket baskets ready for weaving while sailing in Maine in July and August… enthusiastically looking forward to a week of weaving at Vavstuga later this month…  admiring this year’s crop of weld blooming magnificently and watching for indigo seeds to sprout in the garden.  I’ve finished a blanket for a good friend recovering from hip replacement surgery and have recently started Deborah Newton’s ‘greenhouse tank’ from the current issue of IWKnits.

Then Life struck.  My father died unexpectedly on May 19, and now two other family members have passed as well.  I had to move my mother from her home to mine, a great distance away, and then into assisted living.  I am buried in legalities and paper work, and somehow my projects seem like a whim from a distant past.

Still, it is a beautiful spring here in NJ. My peonies and foxglove and iris are blooming profusely, and my cat entertains us with his annual boost of spring energy as well as doing double duty enduring our attentions not only for him but also for our recently deceased dog. That’s life.

 

the lion lies down with the lambs

In the midst of my grief and what seems like endless paperwork a friend sent this anonymous saying:
“Being happy doesn’t mean life is perfect.  It means you’ve decided to see beyond the imperfections.”

So, I’ve returned to working on my Deborah Newton “Greenhouse tank” and to my large Nantucket basket.  I’m juggling my time visiting my mother and getting her new apartment furnished, searching for all the paper work to file my father’s taxes for last year, and getting ready for a week at Becky’s Vavstuga! If you want to follow the basket making procedures go to my basket link above.

Starting a Nantucket-Style Basket on a Mold

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Nantucket Basket Procedures

It certainly is daunting to consider making one of these baskets so I thought I’d record the process as a resource for my future attempts.  If anyone should stumble here and find help all the better!

My basket teacher is Judy Flanders, a member of the Westchester Basket Guild (NY) and a proficient basket maker and thorough, careful, patient teacher.  If not for her I would still be starting at the DELS website trying to figure out what I need!

Determining the Number of Staves:

1. Measure the rim circumference of the basket mold in millimeters. If you only have access to measurements in inches multiply inches by 25.4 to find mm’s.

2. Measure the width of the staves you have chosen to use (also in mm). To this number add 1.5mm for the space between the staves.

3. Divide the answer from #1 by the answer from#2.

Example: the circumference of my round basket is 800 mm. The staves I have are 6mm wide. Adding 1.5mm to my stave width of 6mm gives a total of 7.5mm.

800 / 7.5 = 106 or 107

This is just an estimate, but it gives me an idea of how many staves to shape.  I will add at least 10% to this number, so I will be shaping about 116 – 120 staves.

10″ round Nantucket mold with two shaped staves

Preparing the mold:  The hardwood on the base of the mold becomes the base of a Nantucket basket, with all the staves firmly attached into a groove.  This base needs to be protected during the basket making process.  I have removed the screw holding the base to the mold and inserted layers of cardboard that were cut to the same circumference as the base.  I have two layers of cardboard between the base and the mold, and one layer of cardboard on the outside of the base to protect it while I’m weaving.  I put the screw through all these layers and re-attached everything to the mold. Ready for inserting staves!

Shaping the Staves: the staves are tapered until they reach the shoulder, or curve, of the mold.  From that point to the rim of the basket they keep their full width.  The length of each stave is about 1″ longer than the edge of the mold.  For a round basket all the staves will have the same shaping; an oval basket would require different shaped staves for different areas of the curve of an oval. I am using two kinds of staves on this basket, and there is an example of each in the photo. Both have been tapered.  There will be eight walnut staves set at equal distance around the mold creating a dark stripe that matches the walnut base and rim of the basket. These positions correspond to the fine dark lines on the mold in the photo above. The rest of the staves in between these stripes will be maple.  I think this will be a striking basket design.

After tapering the ends of the staves that will be inserted into the base, each stave needs to be lightly sanded for smoothness as well as sanded down to a finer dimension in the tapered area.  I want to sand only enough to allow the stave to fit snugly into the groove of the base.  If the stave goes into this groove too easily and is loose it may come out at some point during the basket’s life which would be a hard repair to attempt.  If the stave is too tight it might not fit all the way into the groove which might also cause it to come out at some future point.

I taper the staves using a small hand plane.  I learned that the proper technique is to hold the plane stationary and move the stave against the blade.

I can sand the staves using a small sanding stand or using sandpaper on a drill press. I’m using flat staves in this basket (contrast that to the round staves I am using in my Nantucket purse) so I have to sand off just a bit of the sharp sides so that the staves won’t break my weavers as I pull on them during the weaving.

Sanding the tip of stave before inserting in basket base

June 9, 2011

Steam-bending the staves: Last night I began shaping the maple staves that will go between the walnut staves around the mold.  I’m making 14 maples staves to go in each of the eight sections of the basket.  I presume that will give me a couple extra in each section in case of breakage.

This evening I steamed the walnut staves and placed them around the mold.  Steam-bending involves boiling a pot of water (not a food pot!  I use a small dye pot) and adding the shaped staves to boil for 10 minutes.   After 10 minutes have passed I still leave the pot on the heat as I take out one stave at a time and place into the rim on the bottom of the mold, then quickly but carefully bend the stave to the contour of the mold.  After a couple of seconds I pull the rubber bands out around the stave to hold it against the mold.  Then I proceed to pull the next stave from the pot of boiling water…

NOTE TO SELF: Never boil maple staves in the same water as walnut staves.  Like its nutshells, walnut wood has a lot of tannin and will dye the maple staves the color of walnut!

Thank heaven for these large rubber bands.  I wonder what the sailors used traditionally.

Adding the maple staves

Next, I added one section of maple staves.  The contrast between the walnut and maple will be greater when the staves dry.

one section of maple staves completed

Time to check in with my teacher!  I only got 11 maple staves between the walnut staves, and I should have gotten 12 or 13.  I won’t proceed until I know if this is acceptable!

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Weaving Baskets…some progress

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Nantucket purse (cherry), and small ebony Nantucket basket, both in progress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I now have four basket projects in varying stages.  I need so much hand holding to make any progress that I fear none of these baskets will actually be finished any time soon.  Still, slowly, I’m learning a few things.

Here is one gem I  learned this week from my basket guru/teacher.  At home this month I had started weaving the ‘straight away’ on my Nantucket purse (on right in photo), and one quadrant of staves had begun to go off on an angle.  It was quite unsightly, drawing my eye right to the asymmetry of the weaving.  I was yanking hard to straighten those particular staves every time I came to that section of the basket, but it was not improving!  So I put the basket aside to wait for help from my teacher.  I thought she would tell me to un-weave, but she had a different suggestion!

It turns out I should never leave the basket ‘au naturel’ while I’m not working on it.  When I put it aside for any amount of time I should spray the staves with water, put on the heavy rubber bands, and then position all the staves as best I can.  The next time I weave those staves should stay straight, or certainly straighter.  At the end of weaving I spray and re-band for the next time.  It works!  I’m thrilled that I didn’t have to un-weave anything and that I’ve managed to keep the staves straighter now.  It’s certainly not a perfect basket, but I am happy with it!

I finished lashing on the rim of the  tiny Nantucket, but the day came to an end before I could attach the handle. Sigh... Why does time go so quickly at our monthly basket workshops?  I have the handle hardware assembled and waiting to be attached.  I don’t want to peen the handle rivets without some hand holding, so I just have to wait ’til June.

Lastly, I will spend some time this month shaping about 120 staves for a larger round Nantucket basket that I hope to weave while sailing in Maine this summer.  It occurred to me that weaving a basket could be a wonderful boat project.  However, due to my inexperience and lack of confidence, I want to have all the staves shaped and steam bent and in place around the base of the mold before I head off into the sunset to weave it by myself! I’ll start working on those staves today.

10" round Nantucket mold and "Japanese Wave Weave" covered vase

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Basket #4 is languishing, waiting for its rim.  It’s the tall cylinder that is a glass vase enclosed in basketry, woven with cane, waxed linen and beads in a pattern called Japanese Wave Weave.)

I really thank my stars that I have such a great teacher!

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